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Overview

Plagued by nightmares of Majipoor besieged by blizzards and earthquakes, Lord Valentine believes these omens signal an encroaching war between his people and the Shapeshifters who once ruled the planet. For centuries they have conspired to regain their stolen world and recently, they were discovered impersonating members of the kingdom’s inner circle.

Since coming to power, Valentine has made peaceful overtures to the Shapeshifters, actions that have many in the royal court questioning his motives and loyalties—and led them to consider removing him from his governing duties so that he may ascend to the higher ceremonial office of Pontifex.

But if Valentine accepts the mantle of Pontifex and surrenders his position to his successor-in-waiting, he may be remembered as a leader who evaded his responsibilities—and shattered the peace that has reigned for eight thousand years…

Valentine Pontifex

Praise

“Silverberg, in Lord Valentine’s Castle, introduced the sprawling planet of Majipoor…through the eyes of an innocent: a deposed king stripped of his memory seeing the several alien races and delicately eerie overgrowth of his home planet as if for the first time…Majipoor Chronicles used the…device of an experience recorder to give us a time-lapse picture of Majipoor through the centuries. Now Valentine Pontifex whirls that cumulative information into action, the lazy pace through time and space giving way to a dance of conflicting emotions and political intrigue. Both the world and Lord Valentine have matured, and the trilogy becomes whole in a way that the form rarely achieves.”—Village Voice

“There’s an almost hypnotic grandeur to the thoughtful way Silverberg weaves the strands of the story together, effortlessly juggling the various motifs, while enhancing the central characters’ solidity. Taken as a single work, the trilogy must now be judged the best of its type since Zelazny’s classic, Hugo-winning Lord of Light.”—Publishers Weekly